The All Progressives Congress has once again affirmed that it is not ready to welcome members of the Peoples Democratic Party wishing to defect to its party.

The APC outrightly urged members and leaders of the ruling party to stay where they are and accept their new status as the opposition in good faith.

The APC made its position public in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Abuja.

Mohammed said, “The PDP leaders and members are falling over themselves shamelessly and swearing undying allegiance to the APC.

“Well, in case they did not get the message of the President-elect and our National Chairman, we want to repeat it in very blunt terms: the PDP leaders and members, you are not welcome in the APC.

“Please stay in your party, but if – as we suspect – you cannot survive in opposition, then, take a walk, quit politics.”

Mohammed was reacting to a communiqué issued by the PDP, in which it claimed that the APC was harassing its members and that it was trying to turn Nigeria into a one-party state.

The APC described the claim as baseless and untrue.

Mohammed said, “The truth of the matter is that the PDP is scared stiff of being in the opposition. We don’t blame them as they have neither the capacity nor the commitment to be in the opposition.

“A party that stood for nothing but looting and rent collection will naturally be afraid of being in the opposition, where there is nothing to loot or no rent to collect.”

The statement further warned the PDP to stop grumbling over an alleged plan by the APC to use the Election Petition Tribunals ‘to truncate and subvert the freely given mandate by the people in the states and constituencies,’ saying it amounts to blackmail.